Affordable housing declines after every disaster including Hurricane Katrina, Florence and Ida, according to Axios.com, an online news service. After each hurricane, homes are scarce, rental prices skyrocket and people have to relocate due to lack of housing.
In Lee County, which is home to Ft. Myers and Cape Coral, affordable housing was already scarce prior to the storm. According to Ft. Myers News-Press, Cape Coral was especially hard-hit with every city structure damaged from the storm. Florida’s southwest communities face years of recovery, so what will homeowners do who have destroyed homes?
Many homeowners are waiting to see how much they will receive from insurance or FEMA (Florida Emergency Management Agency) before determining whether to rebuild or relocate, says Broker Marty Pozgay, discussing manufactured home communities in Ft Myers that have been damaged. Pozgay spoke to several manufactured home managers and owners after the storm.
“We may see residents move to the St. Petersburg area, and of course, I’m always letting homeowners know they should check out Americana Cove,” he noted.
Home inventory was low prior to the Hurricane, so in Florida, inventory will remain low. “In the St. Petersburg area, we don’t see home pricing or inventory changing much, since we now have thousands of homes destroyed in southwest Florida,” said Pozgay.
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